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Q6600 Upgrade

T

tgrimley

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 1, 2006
Messages
311
my Q6600 is now 3 years old, looking to upgrade.

Right now running: Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz, 8GB RAM, GTX 260, Intel 80GB SSD, Abit P35 on dual Dell 2408 (game on one, usually at 1650x1050 or whatever the nearest 16:10 res is)

Looking to go native or at least get rid of the stutter I am seeing in modern games.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
75% general browsing, music listening, movie watching. Right now I tend to use most of my ram and reboot infrequently. Occasional gaming: single player fps (medal of honor, etc), unreal 3, League of Legends, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. Tend to play slightly older games. Solidworks 2011, and some FEM work on occasion (usually at work computer, but nice to run locally in a pinch).
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
About $1200 for all. Less if possible, more if reasonable.
3) Where do you live?
Have AMZ prime, and live in Santa Cruz, so Microcenter/Fry's is possible if the the drive is worth it.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, MB, RAM, SSD, PSU, Case, GPU
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Could keep the GTX 260 if it makes sense. I'd guess it's good to upgrade. Have a PC Power and Cooling 510W on the old rig, but would like to keep it intact if it makes sense. I'd guess it's probably a little under powered anyway. Have a spare 2TB drive for media/games. Have a spare Megahalem but no fans.
6) Will you be overclocking?
If I can do it while keeping the idle power features.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Have dual Dell 2408's.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Sometime in April.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
eSATA is needed (or 6+ internal ports), USB 3.0 would be nice I suppose. No need to SLI/Crossfire or RAID.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I have a legal copy of Win 7 64 bit.

My thoughts so far (dollars from NE):
CASE: LIAN LI PC-A04B ~$130
PSU: SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold
CPU: 2500K ~$200 (MC)
MB: ASUS P8P67-M PRO ~$175
RAM: Whatever 1600Mhz 16GB kit becomes available for ~$150
GPU: Usually go for the $200-300 range, so thinking a 470
SSD: Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB ~$300

total: ~$1300


If you can't tell from the parts, I'm looking for a little more quiet, smaller, and lower power setup than my Q6600+gtx 260+ lian li pc-60

Any thoughts would be appreciated :)
 
I'm in a similar situation and my plan now is to wait till next month till the z68 chipsets hit and then upgrade. Probably going to splurge on a 2600k though.
 
I only found a few changes between P67 and Z68:
OC onboard video
quickpath
SSD caching for mechanical hard drives

Are you waiting for one of those features or just waiting?
 
I need to be able to use the quicksync (video encoding), support discrete graphics and be able to overclock the processor, and as far as I know, only z68 can do those.
 
Zero reason to get DDR3 1600 RAM since it doesn't provide a real world performnce increase over DDR3 1333 RAM. So you'll be fine with this RAM or any 1.5V DDR3 1333 RAM:
$80 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

GPU wise, the GTX 470 isn't worth it nowadays. Go for the HD 6950 1GB or HD 6970 2GB.
 
I'm not sure about your SSD. Is there a reason you picked it?

The OCZ Vertex 3's look like the new SSD kings, but they are hard to find at the moment. If you are wanting to build later in the month, they might be more readily available. If not, comparable (or better) SSDs are available for much cheaper than that Intel 510.

If you are planning on OCing the 2500k you'll need a HSF beyond the stock cooler. The Cooler Master Hyper 212+ is the one I am familiar with, but there are others for SB chips.
 
Have a spare Megahalem revb to use. Picked the ssd because it was faster and bigger than my 80gb. I guess I also just get the impression that the intel drives are more robust, but that might not be true.

If I am gaming 1920x1200/1920x1080 does the 6970 justify the extra cost? I am not really interested in eyefinity. Maybe it's better to get a 6950 with extra cooling?
 
tgrimley said:
Have a spare Megahalem revb to use. Picked the ssd because it was faster and bigger than my 80gb. I guess I also just get the impression that the intel drives are more robust, but that might not be true.

If I am gaming 1920x1200/1920x1080 does the 6970 justify the extra cost? I am not really interested in eyefinity. Maybe it's better to get a 6950 with extra cooling?
Click to expand...

If you're looking for max settings as much as possible, then yes the 6970 is worth the extra cost. With that said, the HD 6950 2GB does offer pretty comparable performance. So if you want to save money, it won't hurt you that badly dropping down to the HD 6950 2GB:
$283 - XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB PCI-E Video Card
 
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